2026 Institutional Equity Strats Summer Associate Program (New York)

Placement and Duration

The Institutional Equity Strats Summer Associate Program is an intensive 10-week program that provides Summer Associates the opportunity to work alongside full-time professionals on impactful quantitative projects. Summer Associates will work within an assigned team for the entirety of the program. The multi-faceted program features senior strat speaker series product area training networking events and community service. With individual coaching and continuous feedback the program enables Summer Associates to experience and understand what a long-term career with the Firm entails.

Training Program

The Summer will kick off with a week-long introductory training program which will provide an institutional contextualization to the work that Summer Associates will be doing through market-knowledge training finance workshops coding and product training. Following the training week Summer Associates will continue to receive more individualized on-the-job training as they join their assigned desks and begin their daily work and projects. Summer Associates will have a direct manager as well as a program mentor both of whom will act as invaluable resources throughout their time at Morgan Stanley.

Responsibilities

Morgan Stanley operates several teams which require experts in statistical analysis applied mathematics computer science and computational finance. These teams operate our leading trading platforms market making operations and derivative structuring pricing and risk management. The mathematical problems arising in these areas are subtle complex and require a broad range of technical skills. As a Summer Associate you will leverage the technical expertise you have been grooming in your academic studies and apply it to extremely applied problems. Many of the applied problems and processes that you will work on are still unsolved and are yet to be optimized.

Institutional Equity Strats operates with a core focus on enabling sales and trading to innovate and scale business activities using cutting-edge technologies and world-class infrastructure. Primary responsibilities include creation of data and analytical decision-making tools conducting analysis and presenting research ideas developing supporting frameworks and workflows and delivering valuation and risk management systems.

Summer Associates sit in one of the below three groups of Institutional Equity Strats. You may be selected to interview with multiple teams:

Derivatives:

Multiple teams dedicated to Derivative businesses (Vanilla Corporate Exotic Derivatives Quantitative Investment Strategies) Derivative Strats are responsible for implementing and supporting quantitative models used in pricing risk management and trading activity optimization.

Delta One:

Dedicated to businesses covering cash products (i.e. common stock funds and related assets) with a core focus on enabling sales and trading to innovate and scale business activities using cutting-edge technologies and world-class infrastructure. Primary responsibilities include creation of data and analytical decision-making tools conducting analysis and presenting research ideas developing supporting frameworks and workflows and delivering valuation and risk management systems.

Quantitative Research:

The Quantitative Research (QR) group designs builds and maintains the models which drive the equity trading engines at Morgan Stanley and our systems are used globally by both internal trading groups and clients of the firm. We utilize systematic evidence-based approaches to understand how the markets work and put those ideas in action. The team spans the disciplines of finance econometrics statistics mathematics computer science and data science with many team members versed in multiple areas.

Qualifications/Skills/Requirements

• You are pursuing a PhD or a Masters degree in Financial Engineering Mathematics Financial Math Physics Statistics Engineering Quantitative Finance Computer Science or other related quantitative field.
• You are completing your degree (inclusive of PhD defense if applicable) between December 2026 and June 2027.
• You have excellent programming skills in C Java Matlab Python R or Scala.
• You have strong mathematical academic training.
• You have a keen interest in financial markets.
• You have the drive and desire to work in an intense team-oriented environment.
• You have excellent decision-making abilities.
• You have strong communication skills.

Deadline to Apply: Wednesday October 15 at 11:59pm ET

• There will be two waves of application reviews as such we encourage you to submit your application as soon as youre ready.
• An online assessment is required in order for your application to be considered complete.
  • Invitations to the online assessment will go out to eligible candidates starting in early September.
  • Applicants will have 1 hour to complete the online assessment.
• First-Round Interviews will be conducted via Zoom starting in late September.
• Superdays are conducted via Zoom and will take place starting early October.
• Please let us know of any competing deadlines or questions regarding the application process by emailing us at

Expected base pay rates for the role will be between $72.12 and $84.14 per hour at the commencement of employment. However base pay if hired will be determined on an individualized basis and is only part of the total compensation package which depending on the position may also include commission earnings incentive compensation discretionary bonuses other short and long-term incentive packages and other Morgan Stanley sponsored benefit programs.

Morgan Stanleys goal is to build and maintain a workforce that is diverse in experience and background but uniform in reflecting our standards of integrity and excellence. Consequently our recruiting efforts reflect our desire to attract and retain the best and brightest from all talent pools. We want to be the first choice for prospective employees.

It is the policy of the Firm to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race color religion creed age sex sex stereotype gender gender identity or expression transgender sexual orientation national origin citizenship disability marital and civil partnership/union status pregnancy veteran or military service status genetic information or any other characteristic protected by law.

Morgan Stanley is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversifying its workforce (M/F/Disability/Vet).